A Russellville teacher was suspended for three days without pay for making a racially insensitive comment to a Black student in her class, according to records obtained by the Daily News through an open records request.

Vicky Mathis, a Russellville Middle School teacher, had no disciplinary record before the incident.

On Aug. 15, Mathis was leading her seventh-period special education class in a social emotional lesson about the “baggage” people carry with the purpose of “identifying, accepting and becoming self-aware about our past, present and future,” according to Mathis’ written statement.

During the lesson, Mathis used her own childhood experiences as examples. She spoke about her coal miner father and how when he came home she couldn’t touch him, which contributed to an “unloved feeling.”

According to Mathis’ statement, a student in the class asked her why she couldn’t touch him. She responded by making a comment that her father had been so dirty from the mines that he was “black like Demetrius,” one of the two Black students in the class.

Mathis’ written statement added that she had been trying to get Demetrius’ attention throughout the entire class.

After talking to her son and her friend James Ivery, president of the State of Georgia Civil Rights Memorial Group, Demetrius’ mother, Patricia Hudson, decided to file a complaint. She emailed Darryl Green, Russellville Middle School principal, and Larry Begley, Russellville Independent School District superintendent, the day of the incident.

Her email cited Kentucky Board of Education’s policy on harassment and discrimination, which includes as examples of violations “any nicknames, slurs, stories, jokes, written materials or pictures that are lewd, vulgar, profane and relate to any of the protected categories listed in the definition of harassment/discrimination contained in this policy.”

“So all I could think about is how my son is feeling since he has been humiliated and made fun of in front of the whole class,” Hudson wrote. “ … Mrs. Mathis should not have made a racial slur towards my child.”

Green launched an investigation by interviewing and gathering written statements from each of the students in the class about what had occurred. Four statements specifically mentioned Mathis’ comment toward Demetrius, corroborating Hudson’s complaint.

After the investigation, Begley decided to suspend Mathis without pay from Aug. 17-19 and require her to go through an approved training following her suspension.

In his Aug. 17 email informing her of the disciplinary action, Begley wrote that while she may have been “trying to be funny,” her statement “humiliated” her student.

“While you may not have intended the statement to be racial, at best it demonstrated your lack of sensitivity,” Begley wrote. “Your actions demonstrated flagrant disregard for the health, welfare and safety of these students and violated the administrative regulation promulgated by the Kentucky Board of Education.”

Begley also informed the Education Professional Standards Board and Jason Glass, Kentucky commissioner of education, of the suspension.

Hudson and Ivery both said Mathis’ punishment wasn’t sufficient. Ivery is still working on a petition to permanently remove Mathis from teaching, he said.

“The three days that she got suspended was not enough. She should be fired,” Hudson said. “It’s just sad that the school system would uphold her there.”